Analog Circuit Design Strategies for Reliability Tolerance: Planning for Reliability Effects While Designing Circuits in Modern CMOS Technologies

Processing challenges in modern CMOS technologies have led to several reliability concerns, resulting in deteriorated over-lifetime product performance. While they are not new phenomena, the impact of these effects has significantly increased over the years. Reliability effects today include those related to transistor-aging, such as bias temperature instability (BTI) and hot carrier injection (HCI), as well as interconnect degradation (see "What Is Reliability?"). Simply evaluating and fixing these issues with CAD simulations, although performed during the pre-silicon phase, is no longer ideal for design efficiency.